1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a contents processing device for which there is a need to carry out communications with a server device located outside a local network to which the contents processing device is normally connected, and a gateway device for providing a service to mediate such communications on behalf of the contents processing device.
2. Description of the Background Art
Recently the rapid progresses of communication technology such as Internet and digital technology such as DVD (Digital Video Disk) are attracting much attentions from a variety of fields. These technologies are beginning to spread beyond the field of information communication to fields such as broadcasting, AV (Audio Visual) devices, home appliances, etc., and it is expected that the merging of various fields mentioned above will also progress rapidly in future.
In particular, even for a home where no sophisticated communication technology has been necessary up until now, the above noted progress of the communication technology is giving rise to new technologies such as applications to the data communication technology based on advance of the modem technology, to the home network technology such as IEEE 1394, etc.
Now, when further progresses in the digitalization and the networking of AV devices are made in future, there will arise a problem regarding handling of digital contents. Namely, there will be problems of improper copying or improper processing of the digital contents.
For this reason, there has been a proposition of a scheme for applying the cryptographic techniques to the above noted digital contents such that replay of digital contents is permitted only to those devices which are registered in advance.
There has also been a proposition of a scheme called Divx scheme in which the fact that the contents have been replayed is remembered by the AV device and a log history is notified to a charging server later on so as to realize the charging with respect to the replay, in addition to the above noted replay permission control. There are also many propositions of various other schemes such as a scheme for permitting replay only when the replay condition is satisfied, a scheme for permitting replay by obtaining a permission from an external license server even when the replay condition is not satisfied, and so on.
These schemes require the AV device to have a network function such that the required procedure can be carried out as the AV device carries out communications with a license server/charging server located on a public network.
Also, many of the future AV devices such as Internet TV and push button news delivery are expected to be those that presuppose the networking. Presently, a telephone network is the only available network infra-structure that is sufficiently developed up to the home environment, so that it is reasonable to expect that the communications with servers such as license server, charging server, news server, WWW server, etc. will be carried out through the telephone network except for some highly advanced environment.
However, the future AV devices to be introduced into the home are expected to have interfaces to a home network such as IEEE 1394. If such a future AV device is also to be connected to the telephone network as described above, it would become necessary to provide wirings for the home network and wirings for the telephone network connection so that the future AV device would inevitably become very complicated.
The same problem also arises when there is a need for a device connected to a local network to carry out communications with another device through a network other than that local network.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a gateway device which enables a contents processing device such as AV device that is connected to a local network such as home network to carry out communications through an external network such as telephone network even when no interface to the external network is provided in the contents processing device.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a contents processing device such as AV device which is capable of carrying out communications with an external network such as telephone network by being connected to a local network such as home network even when no interface to the external network is provided therein.
According to one aspect of the present invention there is provided a gateway device, comprising: a first network interface for connection to a home network; a second network interface for connection to a telephone network; a call set up unit for carrying out a call set up with respect to a specified address on the telephone network, upon receiving a solicitation for a call set up with respect to the specified address on the telephone network from a contents processing device connected to the home network; and a transfer unit for transferring data transmitted from the contents processing device to a connection established by the call set up, and data arriving from the connection established by the call set up to the contents processing device.
This gateway device can be a home gateway, for example. The contents information device can be an AV device such as DVD player or a PC, for example. The home network can be a local network such as that of IEEE 1394 bus, for example. The telephone network can be a public network in general, and the address on the telephone network can be given by a telephone number. The address specified by the contents processing device can be that of the license server, for example.
In this aspect of the present invention, it becomes possible for the contents processing device to carry out communications with the server device indicated by the specified address on the telephone network through the home network, so that it is not absolutely necessary for the contents processing device to have an interface to the telephone network (public network interface) and therefore it is possible to realize a considerable simplification of network wirings.
Also, in this gateway device, the call set up unit may receive the solicitation made by the contents processing device which has a need to communicate with the specified address in order to process a specific contents information.
Here, the need to communicate with the specified address arises, for example, when there is a need to obtain a permission (such as that given by charging or that given by license contract) for applying some processing such as decryption or replay to a specific contents information at the contents processing device, and this permission is to be obtained by communicating with the license server through the telephone network.
Also, this gateway device may further comprises a notification unit for notifying that the gateway device is in a state capable of responding to the solicitation, through the home network.
For example, when the second network interface is not connected to the telephone network, this gateway device is not in a state capable of responding to the solicitation, so that this notification is not made.
This notification can be made from this gateway device to the devices connected to the home network either actively by using the service location protocol, for example, or passively by writing information to be notified into an IEEE 1212 register, for example (so as to create a state where a device connected to the home network can learn this information by accessing the IEEE 1212 register).
In this way, the contents processing device can recognize the case where it is possible to make the connection to the telephone network through this gateway device and the case where it is not.
According to another aspect of the present invention there is provided a contents processing device, comprising: a network interface for connection to a home network; a protocol processing unit for executing protocol processing for communications with a server device through a telephone network; a solicitation unit for soliciting a set up of connection to the server device through the telephone network, to a gateway device which is connected with both the home network and the telephone network; and a contents processing unit for processing contents information according to the communications with the server device.
In this contents processing device, this protocol processing unit can carry out the prescribed procedure by communicating with the server device through the gateway device even when the contents processing device does not have an interface to the telephone network.
This contents processing device can be an AV device such as DVD player or a PC, for example. The server device can be a license server, for example, and the gateway device can be a home gateway, for example. The home network can be a local network such as that of IEEE 1394 bus, for example, and the telephone network can be a public network in general. The address on the telephone network can be given by a telephone number.
In this aspect of the present invention, the communications with the server device can be carried out through the home network, so that there is no need to provide an interface to the telephone network (public network interface) in this contents processing device and therefore it is possible to realize a considerable simplification of the device configuration. In addition, it becomes possible to solicit a set up of connection to the server device with respect to the gateway device, so that this contents processing device and the server device can be connected through the home network, the gateway device, and the telephone network and it becomes possible to carry out mutual communications through them.
Also, this contents processing device may further comprises an additional network interface for connection to the telephone network; and a judgement unit for judging whether the communications with the server device through the additional network interface is possible or not; wherein the solicitation unit solicits the set up of connection to the server device through the telephone network and the protocol processing unit carries out the communications with the server device through the gateway device, when the judgement unit judged that the communications with the server device through the additional network interface is not possible.
In this case, it becomes possible to carry out the communications with the server device through the home network so that the communications can be carried out through the telephone network when it is connected to the telephone network or through the home network when it is not connected to the telephone network.
In addition, the gateway device can establish the connection to the server device, so that this contents processing device and the server device can be connected through the home network, the gateway device, and the telephone network and it becomes possible to carry out mutual communications through them.
Also, in this contents processing device, the protocol processing unit may carry out a prescribed procedure using the communications with the server device in order to obtain a permission to process a specific contents information, when a need to obtain a permission to process the specific contents information arises.
The specific contents information can be contents information such as video image, still image, audio, text file, program, etc., and the processing can be decrypting, replaying, displaying, reading, storing, copying, executing, etc.
Also, in this contents processing device, the contents processing unit may read out the specific contents information from a prescribed storage medium, and the protocol processing unit may obtain an address information of the server device which is to be used in setting up connection to the server device, which is recorded along with the specific contents information in the prescribed storage medium.
In this way, it becomes possible to require the charging or the license contract in conjunction with the reading or the copying, for example, in order to protect the copyright of the specific contents information. In addition, it becomes possible to specify different server devices for different storage media.
Also, in this contents processing device, the protocol processing unit may authenticate the address information using an authentication information for the address information which is also recorded in the prescribed storage medium, before obtaining the address information.
The authentication information is obtained by encrypting the address information or a digest of the address information using a prescribed key.
In this way, it becomes possible to recognize whether the address information is a proper one or not, that is, whether it is a proper address information written by an organization which manufactured or produced the storage medium, so that the user can avoid a possibility of setting up a connection to an incorrect server device and receiving unnecessary charges.
Also, in this contents processing device, the protocol processing unit may obtain the address information by decrypting an encrypted address information which is recorded in the prescribed storage medium.
The address information is encrypted using the master key that is safely stored inside this contents processing device, for example.
In this way, it becomes possible to conceal the location of the address information, so that the unnecessary traffic to the server device can be reduced, and damages due to the so called misdialing to the server device or the annoying calls (annoying accesses) can be reduced.
Also, in this contents processing device, the protocol processing unit may execute the protocol processing by executing a communication protocol program which is recorded in the prescribed storage medium along with the specific contents information.
In this way, it becomes possible to require the charging or the license contract in conjunction with the reading or the copying, for example, in order to protect the copyright of the specific contents information. In addition, it becomes possible to carry out the procedure for the charging or the license contract using different communication protocols for different server devices or different storage media.
Also, in this contents processing device, the protocol processing unit may execute the communication protocol program by decrypting an encrypted communication protocol program which is recorded in the prescribed storage medium.
The communication protocol program is encrypted using the master key which is safely stored inside this contents processing device.
In this way, it is possible to conceal the communication protocol algorithm, so that it becomes possible to reduce the improper access to the server device or improper license updating by improper procedure with respect to the storage medium.
Also, in this contents processing device, the protocol processing unit may execute the protocol processing by executing one communication protocol program that is executable at the contents processing device among a plurality of communication protocol programs of identical function written in different programming languages which are recorded in the prescribed storage medium along with the specific contents information.
The programming languages can be JAVA, visual basic script, etc.
In this way, even when it is not possible to anticipate the type of the software platform of the contents processing device at which the storage medium is to be utilized, it becomes possible to deal with a plurality of potential platforms, so that it is possible to enhance a range of the contents processing device at which the storage medium can be utilized.
Also in this contents processing device, the protocol processing unit may execute said one communication protocol program by decrypting a corresponding one encrypted communication protocol program which is recorded in the prescribed storage medium.
The communication protocol program is encrypted using the master key which is safely stored inside this contents processing device.
In this way, it is possible to conceal the communication protocol algorithm, so that it becomes possible to reduce the improper access to the server device or improper license updating by improper procedure with respect to the storage medium.
Also, in this contents processing device, the contents processing unit may utilize contents information recorded in a prescribed storage medium when a replay condition recorded in the prescribed storage medium is satisfied or when a permission regarding contents information utilization is obtained through a prescribed procedure.
In addition, this contents processing device may further comprises: an extraction unit for extracting an address information of the server device to be communicated with in order to obtain the permission when the replay condition recorded in the prescribed storage medium is not satisfied; wherein the solicitation unit solicits the set up of connection to the server device according to the address information extracted by the extraction unit, and the protocol processing unit carries out the prescribed procedure for obtaining the permission from the server device through the connection established by the gateway device in response to a solicitation by the solicitation unit.
In this way, it becomes possible to require the charging or the license contract in conjunction with the reading or the copying, for example, in order to protect the copyright of the contents information recorded in the storage medium. In addition, it becomes possible to specify different server devices for different storage media.
Also, in this contents processing device, the protocol processing unit may carry out the prescribed procedure by executing a communication protocol program which is recorded in the prescribed storage medium along with the contents information.
In this way, it becomes possible to require the charging or the license contract in conjunction with the reading or the copying, for example, in order to protect the copyright of the contents information recorded in the storage medium. In addition, it becomes possible to carry out the procedure for the charging or the license contract using different communication protocols for different server devices or different storage media.
According to another aspect of the present invention there is provided a gateway device, comprising: a first network interface for connection to a local network; a second network interface for connection to an external network; a call set up unit for carrying out a call set up with respect to a specified address on the external network, upon receiving a solicitation for a call set up with respect to the specified address on the external network from a contents processing device connected to the local network; and a transfer unit for transferring data transmitted from the contents processing device to a connection established by the call set up, and data arriving from the connection established by the call set up to the contents processing device.
According to another aspect of the present invention there is provided a contents processing device, comprising: a network interface for connection to a local network; a protocol processing unit for executing protocol processing for communications with a server device through an external network; a solicitation unit for soliciting a set up of connection to the server device through the external network, to a gateway device which is connected with both the local network and the external network; and a contents processing unit for processing contents information according to the communications with the server device.
According to another aspect of the present invention there is provided a gateway device, comprising: a first network interface for connection to a first network; a second network interface for connection to a second network different from the first network; a call set up unit for carrying out a call set up with respect to a specified address on the second network, upon receiving a solicitation for a call set up with respect to the specified address on the second network from a contents processing device connected to the first network; and a transfer unit for transferring data transmitted from the contents processing device to a connection established by the call set up, and data arriving from the connection established by the call set up to the contents processing device.
According to another aspect of the present invention there is provided a contents processing device, comprising: a network interface for connection to a first network; a protocol processing unit for executing protocol processing for communications with an external device through a second network different from the first network; a solicitation unit for soliciting a set up of connection to the external device through the second network, to a gateway device which is connected with both the first network and the second network; and a contents processing unit for processing contents information according to the communications with the external device.
It is to be noted that the present invention as described above in terms of the gateway device and the contents processing device may be construed in terms of methods of operations in the respective devices. Also, the gateway device and the contents processing device of the present invention may be realized in forms of computer readable recording media recording programs for causing the computer to execute the operations in the respective device by controlling appropriate hardware.